Academia as a Profession and the Hierarchy of the Sexes: Paths out of Research in German Universities

Abstract

The careers of women in German higher education are really careers which lead out of academe: women disappear on the route to the top. In order to track processes and structures which lead to this 'academic mortality of females', this article views higher education as a social field with its own dynamic of development, differentiated according to subject cultures. At the centre of the exploration lie organisational structures, hierarchies, time allocation, customs, traditions, everyday practices and interaction in the scientific community. In order to gain insight into these, detailed interviews were carried out with aspiring academics, institute directors and professors, both at universities and at research institutes outside the orbit of universities; the use of time was studied, and ethnographic material was assembled, together with statistical data. This contribution focuses on the structural conditions of the academic career, on symbolic violence in direct interaction, on patterns of competitive behaviour in the scientific community and on the role of mentors. Research questions and study designAcademia is an area in which very few women hold high-ranking positions. By the end of the twentieth century, the proportion of top-ranking (C4) German professorships 1 held by women was well below 10 per cent, in most fields it was below 5 per cent, and the women directors of German non-university research institutes could be counted on the fingers of two hands.Inspection of the education and career paths followed by women from the time they enter higher education reveals not only that fewer women than men obtain doctoral degrees, complete the Habilitation 2 procedure, or gain jobs as junior academics, but that the number of

New challenges for women seeking an academic career: the hiring process in Portuguese higher education institutions

“…It is clear the informal recruitment is more disadvantageous for academic women. These results confirm other empirical studies that reveal the presence of mechanisms that exclude women's advancement in academia (Bagilhole, 2000;Bagilhole & White, 2008;Krais, 2002;Rees, 2001;Van der Brink et al, 2006;Vázquez-Cupeiro & Elston, 2006) The reasons for this difference may be related to the 'old boys' network' (Benschop & Brows, 2003). With local informal procedures (at the university, faculty/schools and department level), personal invitation is a common practice and is based on contacts and networks to which men have greater access.…”

“…Drawing on previous studies (Bagilhole, 2000;Krais, 2002;Rees, 2001;Vázquez-Cupeiro & Elston, 2006) we have formulated the main hypothesis that it is more difficult for women to be hired when informal procedures are used in recruitment.…”

“…Looking at formal careers in polytechnics (Figure 2), it is possible to see the same vertical segregation, even if there are similar numbers of men and women at the entrance levels (women are 50% of the assistants and the adjunct professors). In this sense, it seems that Portuguese academia resembles the German situation: that women somehow disappear on their way to the top, leading to an 'academic mortality of females' (Krais, 2002).…”

Family configurations and arrangements in the transnational mobility of early-career academics: Does gender make twice the difference?

“…Academia has been considered a 'greedy institution' (Currie et al, 2000;Hendrickson et al, 2011) that perpetuates inequalities between women and men, theorised in concepts such as the 'academic mortality' of women (Krais, 2002), a 'leak in the pipeline' (Alper, 1993;Leeman et al, 2010;Van Anders, 2004) and a 'glass ceiling' or 'iron ceiling ' (Fassa and Kradolfer, 2010). The decrease in the percentage of women from one academic position to a higher one is due, among other things, to a modus operandi similar to an 'old boys' club' (Bain & Cummings, 2000), a Matilda effect that underestimates women's contribution to science, while men benefit from a cumulative process of recognition (Rossiter, 1993).…”

Gender inequality in British and German universities

“…38-39) believed that the supposed female attributes of conformity, passivity and submission contrast with the detachment and rivalry needed for the pursuit of science. The theme of competition was also emphasized by Krais and coworkers (Krais et al, 1997;Krais, 2002), who, following Ong (1981), used the word 'agonal' to describe it (from the Greek agōn, meaning contest). These concepts were linked with work ethos by Belensky et al (1986), who distinguished between 'connected knowing' and 'separate knowing'.…”